Revolvers are very popular firearms particularly with law enforcement officers. They are convenient to use and economical to make and persons can be trained to use them relatively easily. A major problem with revolvers however arises from the the fact that they are slow and clumsy to reload in comparison with automatic pistols. This can be of very serious effect when a person using the firearm is under stress or under fire.
A number of suggestions have been made to improve the manner in which revolvers can be reloaded. A very popular device for this purpose is that which is the subject of U.S. Pat. No. 3,722,125 (Switzer). This device comprises a loader having apertures to receive the rear ends of cartridges and an operating member that engages the rims of the cartridge cases to hold them in the loader. The operating member is actuated by manipulation of a control knob. On reverse manipulation of the control knob, which normally takes place when the front ends of the cartridges are inserted into the chambers of the revolver cylinder, the device releases the cartridges. The user will now remove the device and by hand home the cartridges into the chambers. Because the device must receive the rims of the cartridge cases, the apertures must perforce be of larger diameter than the body of the cartridge cases and the cartridges are therefore loosely held in the device. This means that in practice the device can normally only be used with the revolver pointed downwardly. The construction of the device is such that cartridges cannot be fully homed into the chambers whilst still held by the device. The foregoing means that the user must practise before adequate skill in using the device is acquired. The operation of the device, although an improvement over hand loading, is rather slow. Further the device does not retain the spent cartridge cases during ejection from the chambers. Additionally this device is rather expensive and will not normally be discarded after use.
Another device has been used for holding rimless cartridges (such as .45 ACP cartridges, which in practice is the only size of cartridge that the device can accomodate) to enable them to be used in a revolver. This device is known as the "half moon clip". It comprises a half annulus having inwardly directed arms that engage in the grooves in three cartridges and hold them firmly for insertion in the chambers. Two half moon clips are required for loading a six chamber revolver. Although this device is very satisfactory for use as a converter, it cannot be used as a loading clip for rimmed cartridges designed for the weapon because of its thickness when combined with the thickness of the rim would be too great to be accommodated between the rear end of the cylinder and the standing breech and the cylinder could not be locked into the firing condition.
Another device apparently on the market is that known as a full moon clip. This has a central portion from which radiate solid arms that define between them apertures into which the rear ends of cartridges may be received. This device apparently operates in the same way as a half moon clip with most if not all the limitations of that device.
Various loading strip arrangements are known. These too improve loading times but remain slow and tedious in operation.
An improvement made by me is described in my South African Patent Specification No 77/6188. In this specification, I described a clip having an inner annulus from which radiated spring arms that define a number of apertures corresponding to the number of chambers in the cylinder of the revolver with which the clip was to be used. The clip was of the same thickness as the extractor star, being of the order of 1,8 mm in thickness, and, to accommodate it, the rear end of the cylinder required fairly extensive modification. First, the end face had to be recessed to receive the clip therein. Second, the extractor star had to be removed to accommodate the thickness of the clip. Third, the ratchet was provided with a frusto-conical surround to engage a correspondingly frusto-conical central aperture in the clip in order to move the clip rearwardly to eject the cartridges held by it.
A shoulder left around the recess to engage the rims of cartridges inserted into the chambers when not carried by the clip. However, in such circumstances, the revolver could not eject the spent cases of such individually loaded cartridges.